The Barony of Grey Niche holds
four events each year following the four Celtic ‘holidays’ of
Imbolc, Beltaine,
Lugh, and Samhain. These fall
roughly in February, April, July, and October.
Candlemas is the ‘late-period’ name for the holiday or holy
day falling in early February, being the mass for the blessing of
the candles. Its name is used in place of
Imbolc. The Barony of Grey Niche traditionally has
Candlemas as a one-day arts and sciences
event with little to no actual martial activities. Each year the
theme for Candlemas varies based on the
autocrat organizing the event. This year the theme was Japanese,
looking at the Heian period in Japanese
history as submitted by the autocrat, Sugihara
Naome.

The
feastcrat for the event was Baron
SerafinoBenitini. Reservations
were coordinated by THL Cormac the Bald.
The site was the Singleton Community Center in Bartlett, Tennessee,
a suburb of Memphis. This was a dry site.

The site opened at eight
o’clock on Saturday, February 14th. Mistress Alysia
Gabrielle de Fougeres was the acting
autocrat for the day as Sugihara was restricted to bed suffering
from pneumonia. The activities of the day were held predominately in
three rooms of the Community Center. Two rooms were large
classrooms. These were split in half with invisible lines so that
two classes could be offered in each room at the same time. One room
contained Classrooms 1 and 2. The other room contained Classrooms 3
and 4. The two rooms were across the hall from each other
diagonally.

The third room used in the
Community Center was the great hall or auditorium. A stage filled
one end of this room with doors connecting it to the hallway that
ran the length of the community center with doors to restrooms,
classrooms, building entrances, etc. The other end of the auditorium
had doors to a kitchen, exits, and smaller rooms for storage or
prep-work for the theater.

The stage was the fifth classroom for classes
at the event. The troll or reservation table was set up next to the
doors connecting to the hallway. Tables for the arts and sciences
entries were along the wall opposite from the troll table. The
registration table for the arts and sciences entries was at the end
of the room near the doors to the smaller rooms.
Grafin Kenna was in charge of the arts
and sciences competition and registered all of the entries. She was
assisted by Mistress Brigit Olesdottir,
who also sat at the table, and Baroness Dredda,
Kingdom Minister of Arts and Sciences.

Classes began at nine o’clock in all five
classrooms. There were four hours of one-hour classes from nine to
one o’clock with one class being two hours in length and another
having the potential of being two hours in length.

The first set of five classes had started by
the time I arrived on-site. ‘Hands On
Japanese Bookbinding’ by Mistress Arielle and ‘Japanese Theatre’ by
Mistress Vashti were in Classrooms 1 and
2. ‘Japanese Kites’ by Mistress Anyeta
and ‘Gyotaku – Japanese Fish Printing’
by Master Kojin were in Classrooms 3 and
4. ‘Hands On Knitting’ by Duchess Linnet
was on the stage.

After signing-in at the troll table, the
continuation of the Silent Service Auction by the Order of the
Diamond Chalice was set up near the entrance to the kitchen. THL
Cormac provided one of the site’s
folding tables, Viscountess Miriel brought the service bid forms,
and Baroness Dredda provided tape to
attach the papers and sign. Where the first Silent Service Auction
had twenty-six services, this one had just seven. These were placed
on top of colored construction paper, as had been done at the first
auction. The metal table stand that Maistir
Rory brought for the first auction but did not use, instead using
the large floor tripod, was used for displaying
the auction’s sign at Candlemas.

Six members of the Diamond Chalice offered
seven services for bid at Candlemas.
These were those services not bid upon at the first auction which
had been a fortnight prior at the Genghis Khan 1220 event held by
the Shire of Blackwood. The auction was scheduled to run from ten
o’clock to two o’clock ending immediately after feast. The seven
services available for bid were:

At nine-thirty registration of entries in the
arts and sciences competitions closed and a brief judges meeting was
held. Judging of the static entries would take up the rest of the
morning. Entries in Costume Review would be judged at ten-thirty and
Performance Arts entries at eleven o’clock.

The class size for Duchess Linnet’s “Hands On”
Knitting was eight. Class attendees were encouraged to bring needles
and yarn but some materials would be provided. Her Grace would also
be available during the rest of the day, when not teaching her other
class, to assist anyone from the class or help anyone who could not
attend the class get started in knitting.

Mistress Arielle taught the stab method of
Japanese book binding. Several people watched while she and three
class attendees each made their own book. While I did not get a copy
of her handout, I think the reason it was called ‘stab-binding’ was
that you used a tool similar to an ice pick to stab the holes in the
paper and then used needles to lace the pages together with thread,
thereby having the potential of stabbing yourself numerous times
with the needles. The books themselves looked lovely but had a
potential flaw in the lacing. It could be loose, not a tight lace.

Mistress Vashti’s
‘Japanese Theatre’ class became a two hour class. She had one
attendee, Lady Lewen de Wakefield, when
I observed, but reported having a few more earlier. Her class was a
lecture on the history and forms of theatre and included books,
copies of plays and poetry, masks and fans.

As both Laurels’ classes took over an hour,
Mistress Jane Beaumont’s “Dip Pen Calligraphy” class, which was to
be in Classroom 1 of the room, began late but ultimately turned it
into a room with three classes occurring at once. The calligraphy
class’ size limit was ten and a handout was available to take home
for only one dollar. Mistress Jane had between four and six students
in her class. The other ten o’clock class that would have been held
in Classroom 2 of the room, “The History and Art of
Kumihimo” was canceled as the
instructor, Ogawa no RyugoUchiharu, did not make it to the event.

Mistress Anyeta’s
‘Japanese Kites’ was a big hit for the older children and perhaps
some adults as well. She had a wonderful handout about the history,
appearance, and types of kites in Japan including a glossary and
list of websites of interest. I was happy to be able to pick up a
copy of her handout.

Master Kojin’s
‘Japanese fish printing’ was also a big hit for the adults. I had
seen this class taught year’s ago by his wife, Mistress Margery of
Crosgate. Both were here today having
made the journey from the Barony of Iron Mountain and brought both
of their teen-age daughters, who took many of the more craft-like
classes. For this class you did not have a real fish. Instead a
wooden or rubber fish was used as a stamp with the ink rolled on it
and then pressed on paper. There were about ten or fifteen sheets
drying when the class ended.

Mistress Anna Nikki, a nickname for her longer
Russian name, followed Mistress Anyeta’s
kite class with a “Documentation Roadshow”.
She used a cute handout,
Documentation for Gummy Candy by Lord Joe Smith of
Somewhereshire, to teach how to
critically evaluate documentation and recognize the good from the
bad so that you would create good documentation for your entries in
the future.

Lady Amelia van Hemessen
followed Master Kojin with a two hour
class on “Ikebana”. Ikebana is Japanese flower arrangement. Amelia
presented the history and several styles, after which those
attending made arrangements. A five dollar fee was charge to cover
the costs of the flowers, containers, moss, pebbles, rocks, and
other supplies. Between eight and ten ikebana arrangements were
made. These were then taken to the auditorium to display on the end
of the stage and later on the tables, both high table and those
eaten at by all us regular folks. I was very pleased with my small
arrangement and after the event gave it to my Mom, with whom I was
staying over the weekend.

Lady Amelia did have a
Performing Arts entry in the competition and since her class went
from ten o’clock to twelve o’clock and she needed to change for the
performance, the judging was not actually finished until right
before feast.

Meanwhile on the stage Duchess
Linnet followed her knitting class with one on coil baskets. There
was a class size limit of eight and a two-dollar fee for materials.

At eleven o’clock Duchess
Ilissa the
Nightwatcher followed Mistress Anna Nikki’s class with the
‘Japanese Art of Unpersuasion for the
Gentle Sex’. This was basically a self-defense class for ladies. A
few gentlemen attended to assist with the demonstrations and
practices. It gave a completely different atmosphere to the room for
those of us meditatively contemplating layouts, plants, and stones
for the floral arrangements.

Across the hall in Classroom 1
Duke Kane had a packed table of twelve or fifteen gentlemen warriors
for “Battle Tactics”. Classroom 2 in the same room was to be Lady
Ashikaga Nanban
Shimofuri’s class on ‘how to make a pair of Period
Hakama to fit
nanban/gaijin’; however, she had not arrived as of eleven
o’clock. Mistress Alysia acted as the substitute teacher and used
one of my classmates from Ikebana who had finished his arrangement
and was dressed in full Japanese garb as a model. The three to five
people attending the class took notes on constructing the pattern
from Mistress Alysia’s on-the-body
explanations.

Lady
Katinka White Hair followed Duchess Linnet on the stage at
eleven o’clock with a class on making “basket liners” as an “SCA
Life” category craft.

Shimofuri arrived
just before twelve with her daughter and travel companion, a rapier
fighter she ‘stole’ from another Kingdom. As the Order of the
Laurels were holding a meeting at Candlemas
at noon and did not want it to be a public meeting, which,
originally located on the stage would make it, they took over the
room that contained Classrooms 1 and 2, moving the noon class in
Classroom 1 to the stage, there being nothing scheduled at noon for
Classroom 2.

Baron UliamMcUliam’s class “Understanding
Musashi: A Guide to Reading The Book of 5 Rings” was
held on the stage instead of in Classroom 1 due to the swap with the
Laurels for their meeting. Lady Zhara um
Nikko followed the Ikebana class with “East Asian Condiments”. Her
class consisted of a lot of food items, which the participants were
able to sample along with notes and handouts. While her class was in
Classroom 4, Classroom 3 of the same room was open as Ogawa no
RyogoUchiharu
was not present, and so ‘Traditional Origami’ covering the history
of origami, was not held. Instead, with that side of the room
available, Shimofuri gave her version of
the “Period Hakama” class. One couple
had brought fabric and a hakama was
fitted to him, the fabric arranged and cut and pinned with stickpins
so that it could be sewn once the husband and wife returned home.

I had not brought fabric so had started a
fitting to record measurements. Unfortunately during this time THL
Cormac discovered he needed every table
the site had for set up for feast. Thus I departed to close the
Silent Service Auction early, roughly around twelve-thirty, taking
everything down so that the table could be used in the feast table
set up. This was the second time Shimofuri’s
class had been held and I had missed out. Perhaps the third time
will be the charm.

The Silent Service Auction at
Candlemas raised twenty-five dollars for
the Royal Reception with five of the seven services bid upon by THL
RavenswarBrackae,
incoming Kingdom Seneschal, each at five dollars. The five services
he obtained were:

1.Ambrielle Llewellyn (Vogelburg) – Run a List at One Event

2.Dafyddap
y Kinith (Axemoor) - Marshal at an Event

3.Miriel du Bois (Grey Niche) – Archery at one Event

4.Sarah MacGregor (Ardanroe) – Heraldry Class at one Event

5.TeganverchDwgan (Axemoor) – Basic
Breadmaking 101

The funds collected from today’s auction were
given to His Majesty just before feast. This gave a grand total of
$561 raised by the Order of the Diamond Chalice, $516 at Genghis
Khan 1220, $20 raised shortly thereafter with a bid for Baroness
Barbara’s service, and $25 raised today at
Candlemas.

By twelve-thirty all of the arts and sciences
entries should have been picked up. However, two tables still have
projects on them until the end of the day. Also at this time the
request was made that everything be picked up from the two rooms
down the hall that had been used for classes. That way only the
auditorium and kitchen would need to be cleared at the end of the
day. Shimofuri’s trio had at this time
finished the pinning of the fabric for the Period
Hakama and had gone to the kitchen to
assist with the serving of feast. At her direction I picked up all
of her class materials and extra clothing in Classroom 3 and put it
next to my things inside the auditorium.

Feast was limited to 100. The high table was
set up in front of the stage. His Royal Majesty
Havordh and Their Excellencies Dagan and
Mahsheed were joined by Lady Zhara
and others. There were four rows of tables the length of the
auditorium for everyone else to be seated at. The room was decorated
with red banners hung from the ceiling crossing the width of the
auditorium, the ends of the banners hanging down the walls and
bearing Japanese characters upon them. A mobile of assorted origami
creatures from turtles to various birds hung down from the center
point of the room. Bamboo candleholders in sets of two, one tall and
one short, each wrapped with greenery and bearing inside a fake
candle (the battery operated type) were set at all of the tables.
Each place setting at the tables had an origami box containing
packaged goodies along with wrapped chopsticks on the table and
mochi on a brown paper napkin.

The feast was delicious. I joined THL Gwyneth
and assorted members of House Telemark, the Barony of Small Gray
Bear, and the Barony of Grey Niche, and summarily was joined by the
Master Kojin, Mistress Margery, one of
their daughters, Mistress Arielle, Lady Amelia, and Baron
Dulinn.

Children served water and hot tea, the ice
machine being broken so there was no ice. The first remove was
miso soup with tofu. This was formed
from dashi soup stock, tofu,
miso paste, green onion, and shitake
mushrooms. Served separately from the soup was
oshitashispinich, which were
effectively spinach balls. The second remove was pork teriyaki with
shiso rice and
tsukemono. The third remove was chicken yakitori (grilled
chicken) with shiso rice.
Mochi on the napkins were one dessert
and anko (a sweet red bean pudding) on
crackers was served as the other dessert.

Toasts were made to the Crown, the Baron and
Baroness, and the Heirs. During feast Lady Amelia explained the
Dutch play from which she performed a scene as her Performing Arts
entry. It was really fascinating as the play occurred just prior to
Martin Luther’s posting of his doctrines on the church door but the
themes regarding religion and salvation were remarkably similar. It
gave a new light on Dutch culture.

At the conclusion of feast the
feastcrat was summoned and he and his
staff were applauded. The hall was then quickly cleared of all
tables and the chairs were rearranged to face one corner of the
auditorium near the stage where the guest speaker would be.

Sachiko Matsushita, Ph.D., is the Japan
Outreach Coordinator at the University of Memphis. She has a long
history of study and scholarship in Japanese cultural history and
came to present and discuss The
Tale of Genji by
MurasakiShikibu.
This 54 chapter work of literature gives a detailed look into the
court life and culture of the Heian-era
of Japan. It was also being celebrated by the Japanese in 2009 on
its 1000 years of existence, having been written in 1009.

Dr. Matsushita gave a PowerPoint presentation
on the history of the work, the characters used for writing the
work, both Chinese and Japanese, the style, and the themes. While
she had originally over an hour to give her presentation, Dr.
Matsushita was still going strong at four o’clock and had not yet
gotten to the tale itself. Due to the fact that everyone had to be
off site by five o’clock, her presentation had to be cut short and
she concluded with the themes found in the work leaving the audience
to look at one of the three English translations from 1922-1933,
1976, and 2001 for the actual story.

The room was quickly rearranged for court with
the resetting of the chairs and positions of the three thrones. The
Baronial herald of Grey Niche announced His Majesty and Their
Excellencies entrances and His Majesty’s court opened. King
Havordh said that due to the press for
time the business of Their Excellencies would be held first. His
Excellency asked if Her Excellency would be his Valentine with the
presentation of a handmade valentine.

Mistress Alysia as acting autocrat was
summoned. She thanked everyone for coming, announced that photos had
been taken for the bed-ridden autocrat, and that 151 people were
here today. Grafin (Countess) Kenna was
summoned to give the results of the arts and sciences competitions.
There had been two competitions, a Regional A&S
Faire of completed and not quite finished projects and a Japanese
theme A&S competition. THL Gwyneth Caerr
was the winner of the Regional A&S Faire
with her knitted mitten, having finished one mitten but not the
second. Lady Rihannon(?)
from Meridies was the winner of the Japanese theme A&S competition
with a beautiful silk fan entry.

Mistress Nerak (of
Gladdenfeld) was summoned and asked that
Sir Kane Redfeather and Sir John the
Bastard known as Bearkiller come forth.
Sir Kane went to find Sir John. While waiting, Aisha and
Nadia(?), a couple, were called forth and
received tokens of thanks and small valentine candy boxes from Their
Excellencies for their service to the Barony. When Sir Kane returned
with Sir John, Mistress Nerak presented
both with white belts which had been worn by her husband, Sir
Starhelm Warlock, who passed away a few
months back. “These should be worn by a knight,” she said tearfully,
“and I have no use for them.” The two knights took the belts
solemnly.

Cameron, (Cammer
the Hammer) a youth still two months shy of 16 and son of The Widow
was summoned. He entered from the hall, kneeling before His Majesty
who motioned for him to move to the boy’s right. Cameron knelt
before Baroness Mahsheed who motioned
for him to move again. With him kneeling before Baron Dagan, His
Excellency presented Cameron with the Order of the Azure
Estoile for his service as a youth. Sir
Rey Ribeaumont then came forth and asked
that he might speak having business with the lad. At this time Sir
Rey took Cameron as a squire. Following cheers and applause of the
populace, the Baronial court was closed. It was mused if this lad
might be the youngest squire made in Gleann Abhann. ?

Kev was then
summoned before His Majesty. This turned out to be
MikiveSufut,
who would soon become Lord MikiveSufut with the receipt of an Award of
Arms. Sir Rashid ibn Hilal was then
summoned. His Majesty spoke of those who wished the knight to be
recognized for his work and thusly called for the Order of the
Silver Lamp. Sir Rashid was inducted into the Order; however the
scroll was very hard to read both by the court herald and by His
Majesty. Mistress Jane was chastised for a difficult scroll. His
Majesty also noted that the Silver Lamp had been busy and noticing
other people and, oh, that person is your Excellency! And so Baron
Dagan came to kneel before His Majesty and joined the Order of the
Silver Lamp, though a reading of the scroll was not attempted again.
A plug was made for Art Wars by the Order and they were sent off to
give hugs.

Sara unEiko, who I now suspect was really my
faulty hearing of Lady Zhara um Nikko,
was then summoned. His Majesty mentioned all of the Middle Eastern
theme things that she did but that today she wore Japanese garb and
face paint and hair. For her service she received the Onyx Chalice.

Any newcomers or their first event attendees
were then called forth and received tokens from His Majesty. Then
any children were called forth and received small boxes of valentine
candy or other goodies. Sir John and Sir Kane tried desperately to
get any child to go back and get two boxes of candy for them as
well.

At this time Their Excellencies realized they
had one more piece of business and their court was reopened. Sir
John was summoned. He announced that he had been Seneschal of the
Barony of two years and had pledged to only be Seneschal for two
years. He thanked everyone in the group and kingdom and at this time
gave the key to the Baronial post office box to Dame Brenna, the new
Seneschal of Grey Niche. The Baronial court was then closed.

Viscountess Brenna then had business. She had
lost a piece of her leather belt, a rectangular piece that fallen
off, and asked that if anyone found it to let her know. There being
no further business court was closed.

All were asked to listen to THL
Cormac for directions for the packing up
of the chairs, basically to be put on the chair cart or stacked
against the wall. Help was needed to take the equipment from the
kitchen to vehicles and assist in clearing the auditorium, it being
about fifteen minutes before five o’clock.

With the event coming to an end,
Shimofuri and I decided at this time to
not hold the formal belting ceremony, having attempted at Crown List
(she could not attend) and Christmas Revel (we lost out time-wise at
court). I presented her with a small teddy bear to take to events, a
yellow leather belt to wear with her non-Japanese garb, and one of
the yellow clothe Watch bands bearing my badge made by Sarah
MacGregor for the Watch to wear at my vigil, which she could wear
with any of her garb. I also presented her with print outs of
sources for her to obtain on interlibrary loan to research a
Portuguese name, as that was her actual persona.

With the Order of the Laurels holding a
meeting at Candlemas, many teaching
classes and judging, there was a good showing of the Order. These
included Mistress Arielle de Brabazon,
Master Erik of Telemark, Mistress SeritaVashti al Coya,
Mistress Brigit Olesdottir of Loch
Ree, Mistress Alysia Gabrielle de
Fougéres, Master
DamianoElie Bellini, Mistress
Dametta of Arundel, Mistress Julian
ferch Rhys, Mistress Anna NikolaevnaPetrakova, Mistress
Anyeta the Wanderer, Mistress Rebecca with the Greyhound, and
Mistress Ceridwen the Empiric.

Mistress Ceridwen
received her permanent Laurel Peerage scroll at this event, made by
Sir LetoDarkhorse,
which included her device, hopefully to be registered shortly as it
is at the Laurel Queen of Arms. Visiting Laurels from Meridies
included Master Kojin the Wanderer,
Mistress Margery of Crosgate, and
Mistress Nerak la
Tisserande that I recognized. There may have been others.

Attendance being 151 in number
was fabulous for a one-day event. The majority of those present came
from the Barony of Grey Niche but there were a large number from
Smythkepe (including Ceara, Dante,
Frederick, Morin – who entered an herbal in the A&S competition, and
their daughter Liadran, plus a newcomer
who tagged along with Ceara), Lagerdamm
(Robert, Sir Kane’s squire and a former local exchequer), and Small
Gray Bear (Genevote was home sewing her
dress for her elevation but Rashid, Ravenswar,
Aellesia, Gwyneth, Julian were there),
plus others from Guardian Forest, Hammerhold, Tor an Riogh (Angus,
Searles, Dametta,
Jane – Ceridwen now in Grey Niche due to
her job change), Iron Ox (Shimofuri, her
daughter and travel companion), Northover (Rebecca and
Havordh), Troll Fen (Erik and Brigit),
and Ardanroe (Rory). And then there were many from the Kingdom of
Meridies having come from Iron Mountain and
Gladdenfeld and perhaps other groups as well.

Having flown to Memphis
Thursday night to visit family and to attend the event, I caught my
ride ‘home’, presenting my ikebana arrangement to my Mom, kind
driver to and from the event that day. This had been a lot of fun
and very educational about Japanese arts and culture.

Written this
17th day of February AS XLIII being 2009 Gregorian by
Maistir Rory ua Riada